Framing Malaysia’s digital future: A critical discourse analysis of EdTech in national education policies

Abstract

Artificial intelligence and digital technologies have become central to educational transformation agendas worldwide, positioning Education Technology (EdTech) as a strategic instrument for national development and global competitiveness. In Malaysia, recent education policies increasingly frame digital transformation as essential for producing future-ready learners and strengthening the nation’s digital economy. Despite the growing prominence of EdTech within policy discourse, limited research has critically examined how these policies linguistically construct digital futures and legitimise particular ideological orientations. This study investigates the discursive representation of EdTech in Malaysian national education policies through Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis focuses on the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025, the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL) 2021, and the Digital Education Policy 2023. The findings reveal that policy discourse consistently constructs digital transformation as inevitable, necessary, and economically driven through the recurrent use of high-modality expressions, neoliberal developmental rhetoric, and intertextual alignment with global frameworks such as UNESCO and the OECD. Teachers are predominantly positioned as implementers of institutional digital agendas, while students are represented as future contributors to the digital economy. The analysis further demonstrates that policy narratives foreground innovation, efficiency, and competitiveness while marginalising concerns related to digital inequality, pedagogical autonomy, and infrastructural disparities. This study contributes to critical language and policy scholarship by illustrating how educational policies function as ideological instruments that shape perceptions of technological progress, governance, and national modernity. The findings offer important implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers concerned with equitable and context-sensitive digital education reform.